Dolly Varden FunThis is a magic time of year on Kodiak Island. There are so many options for outdoor fun, it can be tough to decide which to choose today, tomorrow or the next day. It’s also easy to overlook some really prime opportunities. Red salmon, pink salmon and king salmon are in rivers, and now silver sa...

Aim your sights at pink salmonYou would think that with a freezer brimming with king salmon and red salmon, we would yawn at the pink salmon arriving off our shores. Nothing could be further from the truth! Whether for fishing fun or on the table, we relish pink salmon as much as their larger cousins. Pinks are a blast to cat...

Outdoors Kodiak: Fine-tuning your king trollingWe’re “fortunate” in managing to catch a lot of king salmon from our boat — or at least that’s what we hear from the friends around us who aren’t doing as well. But fortune actually plays only a small part in our catch rate. It has a lot more to do with systematically testing the water and the wa...

Deer season is fast upon usKodiak’s deer season always surprises newcomers — it opens so early and seems to run forever. But its quirks run deeper than dates on the calendar. The hunt and the conditions are different than almost any other hunting grounds I’ve encountered. I’ve never hunted in any other state with a deer se...

The keys to fishing with kidsWe’re entering the most important fishing season of the year for families: Kid season. There’s really no better place than Kodiak for kids to learn how to fish, and no better time than July and August. School is out. The weather is often great. And the waters teem with willing fish! I grew up lov...

Outdoor Kodiak: An early start for pink salmonWith the focus on king salmon over the last month, you’d think most of the questions I hear involve those great brawlers. Not so! Here’s what I’m hearing: “Are you seeing any pink salmon yet, Hank?” It’s quite a jump from 30-pound king salmon to 3-pound pinks, so you have to wonder why folks are ...

Outdoors Kodiak: Mooching for salmonMy wife and I had trolled for hours without a hit. We tried the shallow areas we like so much, moved out to around 90 feet like most boats in the area, and hit several depths between. We couldn’t find kings anywhere. On top of that, the tide had turned and we were entering a period that had never...

Outdoor Kodiak: It's halibut timeMy wife and I have been a little distracted by king salmon. Between that and weather days, we simply haven’t put any effort into halibut. But recently we found ourselves on the water with time to kill and no immediate king salmon prospects. It was too nice a day to go home, but we had a couple of...